February 22, 2014

Professor Stephen Cohen Talking Sense On The Crisis In Ukraine

Fascism is making a comeback in Europe, thanks in part to Washington. Source of photo.

"While President Obama has vowed to "continue to engage all sides," a
recently leaked audio recording between two top U.S. officials reveal
the Obama administration has been secretly plotting with the opposition.
We speak to Stephen Cohen, professor emeritus of Russian studies and
politics at New York University and Princeton University. His most
recent book, "Soviet Fates and Lost Alternatives: From Stalinism to the
New Cold War," is out in paperback. His latest Nation article is
"Distorting Russia: How the American Media Misrepresent Putin, Sochi and
Ukraine." (Source: Democracy Now).

Excerpt from the Democracy Now transcript: - Professor Cohen on President Obama's remarks on the crisis in Ukraine:

He is saying that the responsibility for restoring peace is on the
Ukrainian government, and it should withdraw its security forces from
the streets. But let me ask you, if in Washington people throwing
Molotov cocktails are marching on Congress—and these people are headed
for the Ukrainian Congress—if these people have barricaded entrance to
the White House and are throwing rocks at the White House security
guard, would President Obama withdraw his security forces? This is—this
is—and do you know what this does? And let’s escape partisanship here. I
mean, lives are at stake. This incites, these kinds of statement that
Obama made. It rationalizes what the killers in the streets are doing.
It gives them Western license, because he’s not saying to the people in
the streets, "Stop this, stop shooting policemen, stop attacking
government buildings, sit down and talk." And the guy you had on just
before, a so-called moderate leader, what did he just tell you? "We have
lost control of the situation." That’s what I just told you. He just
confirmed that.